Fireproof arch



Aug. 12, 1930. c. H. BUTZ 1,

FIREPROOF ARCH Filed March 25, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet l gwwntoo fidned 1/522112.

c. H. a u'rz FIREPROOF ARCH Aug. 12; 1930.

Filed March 25-, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I Patented Aug; l2, 1930 PATENT oFic CHARLES H. BUTZ, OF DENVER, COLORADO, ASSIGNOR TO THE DENVER FIRECLAY COMPANY, or DENVER, ooLoRAno, A CORPORATION or DELAWARE rrunrnoorARCH Application filed march 25, 1929. Serial No. 349,695.

This invention relates to improvements in the construction of flatarches of. theftype employed in connection with heating furnaces ofvarious kinds and to the construction of the tile employed in theconstruction:

constructing refractory furnace roofs. and.

which can be easily installed so as to require theminimum expenditure oftime and labor and: which can therefore be installed at a minimumexpense. I V

It is. another object of this invention to produce a refractory tilearch that shall be free from the heavy compressive strains existing inthe ordinary spring arches and which will produce no outward strains onthe side walls.

It isa further object of this inventionito produce a refractory fiatarch of such construction that each of the tiles of which it is composedis hung independently of all of -the others'and can be removed andreplaced without disturbing the other tiles and in which the severaltiles are free to expand.

It is a stillfurther object of this invention to produce an archconstruction in which the arch surface may be inclined at any desiredangle and whose end construction gives a rounded intersection betweenthe arch sur-' face and. the throat of the furnace.

Another object of this invention is to produce an arch construction inwhich the tiles are supported in such a way that they are subjectedmerely to compression andshear strains; and in which the supportingmeans does not bind in the'tiles and exert severe breaking strains anddoes not prevent one tile from lying fiat against another.

The above and other. objects. that may becomeapparent as the.description proceeds are; attained by means of a construction and i i anarrangement of parts that will now be. de-

scribed in detail and for this purposerefer ence will now be had to theaccompanying drawings. in which the. inventionhas been illustrated inits which:

preferred form and in.

' Fig. l is a section through a portion of a boiler setting showing theimproved arch in place;

Fig. 2 is a section taken on line 2-2, Fig. 1 and shows the supportingmeans employed;

Fig. 3 is a section taken on line 3-8, Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a view of the front end of the arch showing itsconstruction'at the place where it connects with the throat of thefurnace, portions being broken away to-better disclose the supportingmeans;

F 5 is a perspective view showing the invention applied to a differentform of arch;

Fig. 6 is a section taken on line 66, Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a section takenon line 7-7, Fig. 6; and I i Fig. 8 shows a modifiedform ofconstruction.

In the drawing reference numeral 1 represents the boiler setting whichis usually formed from brick. In the examples shown a water tube boilerhas been used as an illustration. Numeral 2 represents the grateof thefireboirand 3 the throat of the furnace.

will be referred to as a flat arch as it isevident v that the inventionis equally applicableto inclined arches of the type shown and to flatarches. The arch is supported by means of transverse channels 5,.whichare arranged in pairs and which extend transversely of the boilersetting and have their ends supported in the sidewalls of the boilersetting in the manner shown in Fig. 2. In the example illustrated thereare two pair of supporting beams, but it is evident that the number ofsupporting beams varies with the size of the arch and that therefore asmany of these are employed as may be found to be necessary. Secured tothe underside of the supporting beams 5 are longitudinally extending?pairs of channels 6 which are separated by means of spacers/7 and heldin assembled relation by means of bolts 8, as shown most clearly in Fig.3. These? channels. are fastened to the transverse supporting beams 5 bymeans ofbolts 9 whose lower ends extend through openings in the plates10 that extend transversely of the assembled channels 6 and rest againstthe lower flanges of these channels. Bolts 9 extend upwardly between thechannels 5 and through openings in plates 11 that are located above thesupporting beams 5.

t is evident that by tightening the nuts 12 on the bolts 9 that thelongitudinally extending beams may be securely held in place against theunder surface of the supporting beams 5. The number of pairs oflongitudinally extending supports varies with the width of the arch,there being one pair for each row of tile, as will hereinafter moreclearly appear. The refractory tile from which the arch is constructedare of substantially cubical or parallelopipedal form. In the drawingthe thickness of these tiles has been shown in 1 while their width hasbeen shown in 2. in the drawing the width is substantially twice thethicxness, but as the exact shape and size is immaterial, as far as thisinvention is concerned, it will not be necessary to more accuratelydefine the same. The separate tiles have been designated by referencenumeral 13 so as to facilitate identification and to simplify thedescription. The upper transverse corners are preferably bevelled asindicated at 14; as by this expedient the amount of material in eachtile can be decreased without affecting the strength or the heat i.sulating properties of the tiles. Each tile is provided with an opening15 which extends through the tile adjacent the top thereof and has itsaxis parallel with the base and perpendicular to the planes of theopposite sides. A recess or groove 16 extends from the top of the blockto opening 15 and this groove is of sufficient depth to receive thesupporting hooks or rods 17. These supporting rods have their lower ends18'bent at right angles to the body of the rod and have their upper endsprovided with threaded sections with which the nuts 19 cooperate. Theends 18 extend into the openings 15 in the tiles and serve to supportthe tiles. A row of tiles is supported by each pair of longitudinallyextending beams and the supports 1. are spaced apart a distance equal tothe thickness of the blocks so that the blocks will be suspended side byside in the manner shown in Fig. 1. As many rows of tiles are employedas are necessary to produce the desired width of arch. As the edges ofthe tiles must come in contact the pairs of supporting beams 6 must bespaced apart a distance equal to the width of the blocks in the mannershown in 2. By adjusting the nuts 19 the hei ht of the blocks can be.

7 t1 1 regulated so tht the lower surface of each transverse row lies inthe same plane. lVhere an absolutely flat arch is to be built, thesupports 17 can of course. be of the same length;

but where an inclined arch like the one illus trated is used, the lenths of these sn 3 aorts are preferably varied for each row, the lengthof supports for each transverse row of tile being the same. It isapparent that with the blocks suspended in the manner illustrated, therecan be no severe pressure against any of the blocks and therefore theyare free to expand and contract without thereby producing compressivestrains that tend to crush the blocks or produce chipping ordisintegration of the adjacent surfaces. Since each of the separatetiles occupy a space of the exact size and shape of the tile it isevident that any one of them can be removed and a new tile replacedwithout disturbing the others, and this makes it possible to veryquickly and cheaply replace defective tiles.

I want to call particular attention to the fact that owing to the natureof the suspending means the tile is subjected merely to compressive andto shearing strains which are produced by the weight of the tile andthatthere are no breaking strains produced by any lever action such asare frequently produced'when other types of suspensions are employed. Itis evident from an inspection of Figs. 1, 2 and 4: that when. the tilesare suspended in the manner shown that the entire weight of each tile issupported on the end 18 of the hanger 17 by which it is supported, andif care is exercised in putting the supports in place, there are noother strains produced than those due to the weight of the tile and asthis is comparatively small the danger of breakage is correspondinglysmall.

In Fig. 4 I have shown the construction of the front end of the archwhere it connects with the vertical partition A at the throat of thefurnace. From Figs. 1 and i it will be seen that the longitudinallyextending supporting beams 6 project into a recess 20 at the back sideof the partition A. Brackets 21 are secured at their upper ends betweenthe two channels 6 of each pair and are held in place by means of bolts.The lower ends of brackets 21 which have been indicated by referencenumeral 22, extend forwardly and form a support for the lower end ofpartition A. Each of the brackets 21 have a downwardly extending lug 23which is perforated for the reception of the supporting hook or bolt 24.This supporting bolt dili'ers slightly from those indicated by referencenumeral 17, in this, that the end 18 does not make a right angle withthe body of the bolt. The tiles that form the curved portion of the archand which have been designated by ref erence numeral 13 are sectorshaped and in the example shown have their sides inclined at an angle of30 degrees to each other so that the three tiles subtend an arc of 90degrees. By this construction the under surface of the arch connectswith the front surface of partition A and forms a continuous smoothsurface at this point. It is evident that any one of the tiles 13 can bereadily removed and replaced in the same manner as explained inconnection with the other tiles. By tightening the supporting bolts towhich the tiles 13 are secured the rows of tiles can be slightlycompressed or at least moved towards each other so as to obtain thedesired close fit between the adjacent sides of the tiles comprisingeach of the rows. Where the tile surfaces come adjacent to the innersurfaces of the brick work, they may be separated from the latter bymeans of a refractory clay such as that designated by reference numeralin Fig. 1.

In Fig. 8 I have shown a slightly modified form of suspending means inwhich the bolts 17 have been replaced by eye bolts l7 that serve assupports for the hooks 26. These hooks have a straight section 2? thatextends into the opening 15 of the tile and the upper ends of thesehooks are curved in the manner shown. This type of suspension may bepreferable in some place as the universal move ment between the eyebolts 17 and the hooks 26 permit adjustments to take place to a greaterextent than when the rigid supporting members 17 are employed.

In Figs. 5, 6 and 7 my invention has been illustrated in connection witha different type of arch. The arch illustrated in these figures iscomposed of a plurality of elongated tiles 28 whose upper and endsurfaces make right angles with each other but whose lower surfaces 29are concave so as to decrease the thickness of the front ends of thetile. The rear or the wide ends of these tiles rest on the supportingsurface 30 of the boiler setting and the different tiles are interlockeddue to the fact that each tile is provided on one side with a groove 31and on the other side with a tongue 32 that is adapted to cooperate withthe groove of the adjacent tile for the purpose of holding the tiles inprop- I erly assembled relation. The front ends of these tiles are eachprovided with a recess 33 that terminates in a forwardly extendingopening 84 which corresponds to the opening 15 in the tiles shown inFigs. 1 and 2. An angle or other supporting beam 35 extends 1transversely of the boiler setting and in the illustration shown thehorizontal flange of this angle iron is provided with openings for thereception of the supporting members 171, whose lower ends 181 are bentat right angles and project into the openings 84: in the manner shown inFig. 7. It will be seen from an inspection of Fig. 7 that the means forsuspending the front ends of the tiles is substantially identical inconstruction and operation with the corresponding means employed inconnection with the tiles 13. It is also possible to employ the type ofsupport shown in Fig. 8 in connection with the tiles 28 as the operationof the two supports are substantially identical.

I want to call particular attention to the fact already mentioned thatby the type of suspension herein illustrated and described the onlystrains to which the tiles are subjected are compression and shearstrains due to the weight of the blocks themselves and that when theparts are properly installed there is no breaking strain which is due toleverage produced by the suspension means and therefore the danger ofdamage due to strains that are not anticipated, is almost entirelyavoided.

Having described the invention what is claimed as new is:

An arch construction comprising, in combination, a plurality of spaced,transversely extending beams, each formed from two beams having adjacentvertical surfaces spaced apart to form a slot for the reception ofsupporting bolts, a plurality of spaced, parallel beams locatedunderneath the first mentioned beams, each of the lower beams beingformed from two beams spaced apart to form a slot, a plate extendingacross the under side of each lower beam directly beneath the pointwhere it crosses the upper beam, said plate having an opening at eachside of the lower beam, a bolt extending through each opening andupwardly through the slot in the upper beam, means for putting saidbolts under tension for the purpose of securing the beams together, aplurality of supporting rods extending through the slot in each of thelower beams the lower end of each rod being bent at an angle so as toform a supporting hook and a refractory block secured to each supportinghook, each block paving an opening for the reception of the 10m.

in testimony whereof I afiiX my signature.

CHARLES H. BUTZ.

